Poppy Seed Pasta Salad

When it’s treacherously hot, slaving over the stove or grill to put a meal on the table is the last thing anyone wants to do.

That’s where the quintessential summertime favorite known as pasta salad enters the equation.

There’s something appealing about having a giant bowl of cold pasta salad sitting in your refrigerator. It can save the day. If you throw one together for lunch, then dinner is easily taken care of too.

Pasta salads were made for fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. Not only is pasta the perfect vehicle for them, they enhance their cooling and refreshing qualities.

Versatile and adaptable, you can literally toss in whatever you like or have on hand.

Sometimes, what sounds like the oddest of combinations will make the best salad.

Case in point, this pasta salad. Packed with flaked salmon, purple grapes, peaches, scallions, green bell peppers, grape tomatoes and almonds in a poppy seed dressing, it has a wide and unexpected range of ingredients that work surprisingly well together.

You can use the opportunity to clean out those excess boxes of pasta floating around clogging up the cupboard. You know, the ones with only a bit of pasta left in the bottom that you can’t bear to throw out, but isn’t enough to make anything with? Yes, those. I used both gemelli and whole-grain rotini in mine.

You can substitute apples for the peaches and tuna, chicken or shrimp for the salmon.